Why hasn’t Donkey Kong 64 crept onto Nintendo’s Virtual Console? Most of us aren’t wrenching our bed sheets late at night in haunting thought, but at least one Rare fan is curious as to why the modern classic hasn’t cropped up on the digital distribution service. When asked by this fan in a recent Scribes mailbag, the developer responded simply: they haven’t the slightest idea.

“I have no idea why DK64 hasn't shown up yet, and whether Jetpac would still be in there or they'd replace it with Mario's Cement Factory (which ate about three years of my life as a child) or something,” the representative said. “Or maybe a single-screen 2D shooty version of Jet Race would be more appropriate. Who knows? Not us, obviously, or we wouldn't be sitting here pitching clueless alternatives.”
 
As Kotaku notes, this may or may not have something to do with Microsoft’s ownership of Rare. On a similar note, if true, this is like the reverse of the situation Rare experienced with the oft rumored re-release of Golden Eye 007. There were too many hands in the pot to make that happen, we believe.

[via Kotaku]